Michael opened his climbing gym in late December, and we got a sneak preview.
Cesari showing us how it’s done.
We met our friend Jim’s baby boy.
We had our first xmas tree in our new apartment. We got it from the bodega across the street.
We snuck in a quick weekend to South Beach.
On December 21st, we headed out to New Mexico.
We checked out some petroglyphs outside Albuquerque. They were carved into volcanic rock by Native Americans and Spanish settlers 400-700 years ago. We referred to this one as “lizard with lollipop”.
We had an awesome tour at Gruet. It was really special to see the place that had produced a wine I had served so much of over the years. I can’t find any pictures. Must be the sparkling was too good.
I got lots of quality animal time. I might be allergic to cats.
I took the dog walking job whenever possible. The sun was shining every day we were there. I could get used to that.
We liked Ojo Caliente so much, we went twice. It was especially nice after a day of skiing.
Noah showing how the mud baths are done. Pretty neat to be covered in mud in the middle of winter.
We skied at both Santa Fe Basin and Taos.
Santa Fe Basin was pretty impressive. Only 16 miles from downtown Santa Fe, its base was at over 10,000 ft. Since the air is so dry, any snow they get stays powdery for a long time. I’ve always wanted to ski on Christmas Eve day!
This sign cracked me up. There was a surprisingly large number of very bad skiers. I thought it was because of the holidays. Someone on the lift told us it was because of the proximity to Texas. Oh, dip.
Selena joined us snowboarding at Taos. She scraped her outfit together with what she found at her parents’ house. It looked like we were there with our pre-teen son.
John took us shooting one day on some public land. We brought some cans to shoot, not knowing there would be other fun targets already there.
Here’s a video with me and a .380.
NYE with Kaye and Nick in downtown Santa Fe. At one point, almost all of Noah’s family was out west.
We played quite a bit of Mexican or Train Dominoes while we were there. No one could explain the name to me. In case it wasn’t offensive enough, we added a sombrero to the mix.
I got to pretend to be a cowgirl for a day, too.
I came to think of New Mexico as the land of giant breakfast. Huevos Rancheros, Chilaquiles, breakfast burritos; oh, my!
It was also the land of beautiful sunsets. I’m looking forward to returning.
A Thirsty Spirit 